Model Railroading > Wahsatch & Union Pacific Castle Rock GR Wyoming PT II

Spent the last two days working on animating the scene from Part I.   As you can see, the communication poles were added, trucks and cars were added and a new train adorns the scene.   My view of the scene has changed from what I lack in animation to now what lacks or needs to be fixed on the back drop.  My eye keeps moving as the scene changes.   I also changed the focal point in the pictures from the City of LA to the caboose and the box car in the foreground.    All of these are done on an Apple I Phone and edited on the phone.   In addition, one trick we use with the IPhone is to flip the phone upside down.  The camera is now at the bottom of the phone and the focal point is much lower.  Too often in modeling we look down on our trains, rather than the view we have in real life, which is generally to look up at the train or the subject.  

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Two more views.....see the issues with teh backdrop?   My mother (a professional artist and painter) created the back drop.  The back drop was damaged in a flood in October and needs to be repaired.  She plans to help me fix it sometime soon.  

 

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Yesterday a poster asked about track planning.  The poster made a request to see more of the scene or peninsula.   The next set of pictures detail the location of the pictures of this post and then go back away from it.   Castle Rock and the subject scene remain in the middle of the pictures.  You will see Castle rock get further and further away.   This is an inside corner of the layout.   The lay out is a two deck over and under layout in a 12 foot by 14 foot room.  The layout was designed by Master Model Railroader, Patrick Lana, of Denver, CO.   Once designed, we made the layout in layout CAD.   We then took the CAD to Kinko's and had it printed in 1:1 scale.  We laid the printed layout out on the floor and laid track on it and actually ran trains on it.  Once we felt that the design worked, we set out to build the bench work.

Trains can travel from the upper deck to the lower deck via a Helix that is located under the large mountain that separates Shoshoni from Green River.   The Helix is about 20 loops.  We have a much greater separation between the decks than normal.  The upper deck is roughly 55 inches high and the lower deck is just over 36 inches high.   I wanted more "clear space" between the decks so you can see more scenery.  The bottom deck is almost all mountains and scenery where as the upper deck is almost all city and industry. 

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Okay....I have gone from as far away as I can to as close to the scene in this post as I can to show you where it is located and how it fits into the layout.   Hope this helps....  Njoy!

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Very nice John. You guys are doing great work.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Wow, great pictures of a great layout. Hopefully I can see it in person sometime!  Thanks for sharing....

John Parker
Longmont, CO
BNSF Fall River Division

John, looking super!!

Paul Brennecke
Golden, CO

Thank you for the photos, they show off the layout well and show a view most don't get unless visiting in person. 

What I'm trying to determine is how to deal with turnback curves on the ends of a peninsula with scene separation. You've avoided a backdrop and it works nicely with your scene.

-Benjamin

I missed ;part I.   It is so refreshing to see a UP layout that doesn't depict Sherman Hill.  I had planned many years ago to model  Echo Canyon in HO scale with 2 levels as well.  Sadly that did not happen and I later converted to 3-rail O scale.  The UP lends itself to sweeping vistas and long trains, both of which I really enjoy.  Especially long reefer trains!!  You have done an outstanding job of capturing the spirit of the UP and I look forward to seeing more scenes as you progress!  Thank you for a beautiful layout!